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Stamped Building Plans | History Class Brewing

For a practical view on how brewery building plans can look, here’s a peek at the plans for History Class Brewing Company.

Running Your Brewery Business

In this lesson, we’re going to show you how we run the business. We’ll go over expenses, POS systems, and the most important component of our business: the team. It’s these folks that transform the brewery into a memorable experience for our customers. Among other things, we also get into the importance of cash flow; the benefits of overestimating expenses and under-projecting revenues; labor costs and building a great team; empowering your team to be creative and welcoming; choosing a point-of-sale system that works for your business; deciding on business hours; and more. Plus, we go over some key lessons learned after our first two years in business.

Marketing Your Brewery

In this lesson, we build our tribe by bringing them along for the ride. For us, marketing isn’t rocket science. We just focus on storytelling, keeping folks informed about what’s going on with the brewery, and—above all—being kind. What will be your brand and your story? We discuss engaging your customers and keeping them informed; telling stories that matter to them and don’t become tiresome; coming up with a meaningful name for your brewery; helping your customers feel like they’re part of something; designing a timeless logo in a style that you like; when to trademark, and when to defend your trademark; and more.

Construction: Building the Brewery

In this lesson, we’re going to build the brewery. This part can get tricky because you’re going to have to loop in contractors, fire marshals, utility companies, and a bunch of tradespeople to complete the job and pass the final inspection. Specifics we discuss along the way include finding and working with an architect; planning for local approvals, impact fees, permits, and contractors; communicating with the fire marshal in advance; knowing the local requirements for sprinkler systems; knowing and planning for utility needs, and taking advantage of utility incentives; choosing a contractor; planning and building in the cooler; and prioritizing external visibility with signage and lighting. Plus, we’ll take you on a tour to show you the how and why of our own brewery layout.

Empathetically Designing a Brewery Space and Customer Experience

In this lesson, we dive into the customer’s mind to create a space that hopefully will help them reach their goals of having a great experience at the brewery. It’s all about empathy. Along the way, we consider how to take advantage of location (location, location); lighting and brewhouse visibility; designing a taproom to make things easy, clear, and comfortable for guests; understanding sound and facilitating conversation; the importance of sturdy, comfortable seating that lasts; weighing the headaches and benefits of having a kitchen; balancing production size with seating area, depending on the kind of brewery; prioritizing empathy for your customers; and more.

Planning Your Business

In this lesson, we dig into the nuts and bolts of the business side of the brewery. We’re talking LLCs, expenses, attorneys, and how to avoid ego-driven decisions that can mess up the business. Among other things, we discuss: options for raising funds, including loans and selling equity; setting up basics such as website and bookkeeping without over-spending; choosing a partner; knowing and leveraging your interests and your strengths; planning conservatively for the “next likely step”; balancing the scale of your business and avoiding ego-driven decisions; thinking through what you want to do about food; and the benefits of hiring an attorney to help manage licenses and permits.

Getting Started: Ask the Big Questions

In this lesson, we explain why we wanted to open a brewery, what kind of brewery we wanted to create, and where we thought the best location would be. These are the big questions you’ll need to answer for yourself before getting started. Among the things to consider: whether you want to open a neighborhood brewery, a distribution brewery, or some combination of both; reaching out to other brewers for advice without wasting their time; local laws and zoning ordinances and how they affect your location; convenience, walkability, and parking issues; buying or leasing, and understanding the fine print on your lease agreement; choosing a building; and more.

Practical Food & Beer Pairing with Greg Engert

From flavor fundamentals that anyone can follow to specific matchups of beer styles and dishes, the Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s Greg Engert leads a master course on pairing great food with great beer.

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World-Class Beer Service with Greg Engert

From breaking down flavor profiles to proper pouring, glassware, and caring for draft lines, Greg Engert of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group lays out his approach to world-class beer service in this full-length video for All Access subscribers.

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How to Win a Beer Competition

BJCP Certified Judge and award-winning homebrewer Paul Odell covers the inner-workings of beer competitions and offers tips to help you stand out and win with your next entry.

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How to Fix Sh*t in Your Brewery, with 2nd Shift

Steve Crider, founder-brewer-handyman at 2nd Shift Brewing in St. Louis, shares his know-how on keeping a brewery running—and what to do when things break down.

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Award-Winning Beer Quality with Jonathan Reeves

Northern Virginia’s Port City Brewing has been a perennial GABF medal-winner since its founding a decade ago. In this video course, Jonathan Reeves shares his top-to-bottom approach to ensuring technical excellence in the brewing program.

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Fundamentals of Building Your Brewery

Thinking about opening a brewery? Start here to learn everything from licensing to location to profitability.

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Further Reading...

For a deeper dive on establishing an effective sensory panel at your brewery and honing your brewery’s sensory program, continue on for some additional reading...

Thank You!

Thank you for taking this course. Now, get out there and taste!

Beer Evaluation, in Practice

Set up a distraction-free environment, if possible. Take notes, and encourage note-taking. Provide water. Think about glassware. Pour assertively, and make some bubbles (which are high in aroma compounds). What are the four parts of your tasting? Hone your retronasal skills!

The Synthesis of Flavors (and Off-Flavors)

How our senses interpret various chemicals is highly individualistic, yet commonalities exist. Developing our language and vocabulary is one way to make better sense of it. And watch out for that hit of dopamine!

The Importance of How a Beer Looks—and How It Sounds

Color, clarity, foam retention, and more all can make a powerful impression. Sounds can also affect—and interfere with—what we smell and taste.

The Trigeminal System and Mouthfeel

Our trigeminal system has an important role to play in detecting heat (including chile), cold (including mint), and texture—including the texture of all the liquids we put in our mouths. What do these warnings tell us about beer? Among other things, they have things to say about acids and esters.

Types of Olfactory Senses

Having different kinds of receptors means that our brains get different kinds of information about what we smell. The two main types are orthonasal and retronasal—and they combine for a more complete picture. What role do enzymes such as glycosides play in this process? How does our semantic structure come into play—and how can we develop that structure? What role does habituation play?

The Physiology and Psychology of Tasting

Sweet, bitter, sour, salty, umami... or poison? A wide world of taste receptors and bacteria throughout our body tell our brains more than we realize about what we ingest. How do taste thresholds work—how much is too much? And what’s a “supertaster”?

The Superpower of Smell

How are aroma receptors combine and send signals to our brains is incredibly complex, and the possibilities are nearly infinite. Much of we interpret those signals is based on the smells we’ve learned and experienced throughout our lives. However, we can also train those receptors—and grow new ones.

Convergence of the Chemosenses

All of these various chemical senses combine to send a load of information to our brains, which then must make sense of it.

The Power of Chemosenses, Language, and Memory

Why do we have chemical senses—or chemosenses—and what does that mean for how we evaluate beer? How do these senses interact with language, and with our ability to describe what we sense?